Cities and Memory - remixing the world

"I took small snippets of the Imlil waterfall in Atlas Mountains recording to make digital noise and then composed a digital waterfall around them as they fire off at random. Waterfalls are natural wonders and they are beautiful to witness. They make an incredible noise which out of context (without the wonderful visual) can feel rather unnatural and undesirable. We are heading to - if not already in - very digital times. I wanted to create a digital cascade that surrounds and almost traps the listener. The only way out is to follow the melody of the guitar."

Waterfall in Imlil, Morocco reimagined by Wanted Sound.

At Hannover 96 vs. Greuther Fuerth, 11 May 2025 (final score: 1-1). The pre-match anthem is a German song which prompts a mass singalong from the entire stadium, as a traditional pre-match ritual. 

Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

In the central concourse of Hannover Hauptbahnhof, with crowd noises, announcements, and notably someone playing classical piano towards the entrance. 

Recorded in May 2025 by Cities and Memory. 

Waves lap on a driftwood and sand beach only accessible by boat in the Po Delta, Italy, June 2025.

Recorded by Cities and Memory. 

This recording was taken while standing outside a tiny church in Meghalaya, one of three states in India to have a Christian majority. The congregation was singing hymns in Khasi a few days before Easter. The room was sparse and the singing carried into the quiet town, lit by a few new street lights built by the mining corporations steadily taking over the lush surrounding hills. 

Recorded in Brishyrnot, India by wwjd. 

"Improvised violin input triggers and guides various drone instruments that are all generated from either the violin input, or from the Cities and Memory "Italy Po Delta" field recording. Submitted audio is a frozen excerpt of an ever-evolving soundscape that responds to the violin input." 

Po Delta waves in Italy reimagined by Jeremy Sklad (rtfct).

"This piece takes the original recording and focuses on the relationship between destructive extraction and a tiny town in the hills, surrounded by lush mountains, deep caves, and amazing waterfalls. The hills are alive but no longer untouched. Star Cement is slowly trudging through the Jaintia hills. The enormous foreboding lights can be seen from the single-road village while the singing drifts through the natural nighttime chorus."

XXXX reimagined by wwjd.

"We selected the field recording because the chanting of large crowds seems to be everywhere this year. There are so many gatherings of folk, taking to the streets to make their point. The German stadium singalong was a good starting point for our own field recording collection. 

"Combining the Union Chapel choir and minister’s gentle anthems, with the drumming of a wiccan at Crossbones’ Memorial Garden’s pagan festival, set a pulse for the piece. Random voices, sampled from café visits, added to the layering. The Arsenal parade in Islington, London, provided the chanting of champions. Inserting tinkling bells, recorded in a charity garden, breaks up the endless bantering of the human race, looking to mark its place in the moment. 

"The piece aims to find peace in the friction and noise of the feverish crowds around us." 

Hannover 96 pre-match song reimagined by Caroline Grimshaw and Stephen Mugford.

 "Train stations have always been very cinematic. The original field recording that grabbed my attention is of a busy public space with travelers walking through it, that slowly is colored by the resonance of someone playing the piano from afar. So the idea was to keep the two main pillars of movement and traces. 

"With no premeditated structure, and in a very intuitive way, the composition starts with the field recording itself, and then slowly elements within it are brought into focus and isolated, pitched, stretched. New rhythms emerged, and sounds called by association to others as memories do, and a feeling of descending into a haunted underground started being built."

Hannover Hauptbahnhof reimagined by Lama Sawaya.

An impressive busker outside the Hannover 96 stadium, playing the didgeridoo and hand drums at a high pace, while high-fiving anyone who leaves him some cash (including your Cities and Memory recordist). Wearing a Hannover 96 shirt, his music is much appreciated by the thousands of fans walking past him to go to the match.

Recorded in May 2025 by Cities and Memory.